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Chapter 2. System and Linux installation 9
2.2 ThinkPad
Before installing Linux, we installed all our ThinkPad options: additional memory, internal
Ethernet port, the CD-ROM drive, and a 32 GB disk drive
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in the standard disk position. We
did not install our Ethernet PCMCIA card at this time. (In fact, we never used the PCMCIA
adapter because we could successfully share the integrated Ethernet adapter between Linux
and OS/390 TCP/IP.)
We started the system and selected F1 for BIOS setup. Working with BIOS functions, we
verified that we had 512 MB of memory and that the internal Ethernet adapter was
recognized. We set the time and date. In the Startup section, we verified that the Boot device
List F12 Option was enabled; this lets us temporarily select the CD-ROM as a boot device.
Our normal Boot List contained Removable Devices (that is, a diskette) followed by Hard
Drive.
After exiting the BIOS setup function and performing power-off/power-on functions, we had an
initial prompt to provide a temporary boot device list. Pressing F12 provided this list. The
CD-ROM was the third element in the list and this is needed to start Linux installation.
2.3 Linux installation
We purchased a Red Hat Linux 7.1 standard package in a local store. (They also had a
Deluxe version and a Server version; we selected the basic version.) This consists of four
CD-ROMs. The first two contain the system; the third contains Linux source code and the
fourth contains documentation.
We booted from the first Linux CD (using the ThinkPad F12 option to select a temporary boot
device). This produced a Red Hat logo screen and offered the choice of graphics mode or
text mode installation. We selected text mode, primarily because it was easier to document
for this redbook. We then went through a number of installation prompts:
Language: English
Keyboard: US
Welcome to Red Hat Linux: OK
System Type: Custom System
(Possible message about “Bad Partition Table”; if so, select Initialize)
Partition: Manually Partition
Select partition tool: Disk Druid
You can select fdisk instead of Disk Druid, and you should use whichever one you find most
comfortable. We found that the Linux fdisk was just different enough from DOS fdisk to be
confusing, so we used Disk Druid.
Our ThinkPad disk had no installed partitions and was 100% available for allocation. Using
Disk Druid, we allocated four partitions:
Mount Point Device Requested Actual Type Purpose
/boot /hda1 32 M 36 M Linux native boot partition
/ /hda5 3000 M 3000 M Linux native Linux system
/hda6 150 M 155 M Linux swap
/s390 /hda7 1 M 26123 M Linux native for S/390 volumes
OK (to exit from Druid)
Save changes: yes (If this message appears)
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Business partners providing ThinkPad/EFS systems were switching to 48 GB drives at the time of writing. This
change has no effect on the comments here, except that it makes a single-disk system more attractive.